Monday, February 8, 2016

Pulling the Health Care Andon, part 2

I few months back I pulled the andon (Japanese for ‘Help Chain’) on a major Toronto hospital where my mom had suffered a number of indignities.

Thought I’d let you know what happened.

Quick overview: Mama went in for lower back surgery to treat a very painful spinal stenosis. The operation was a success and her orthopedic surgeon and OR staff, superb.

Convalescent care was another story. Here’s a key point summary:

No target discharge date or discharge plan

No standard discharge process.

Everybody we spoke to had a different opinion.

Poor communication.

Key staff members repeatedly failed to return phone calls or provide clear information on Mama’s condition, treatment and support plan

Poor hand-off with community chronic care system

A rogue ‘case manager’ who tried to hustle an 82 year-old patient, who was in great pain from an 8 inch incision in her back, out of the hospital after 2 days – and declined to attend agreed upon patient conferences or respond to calls.

The events could easily have taken place in an American, British, or Australian hospital.

The Rest of the Story
I sent letters to the hospital CEO and the Minister of Health. No response from the latter – and no surprise. Ontario’s vast Ministry of Health has 32 Deputy Ministers. Guess how many are focused on patient experience?

To be fair, Ontario has belatedly acknowledged the problem and appointed a ‘patient ombudsman’